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Iron Supplements Might Not Help All the Pregnant Women

According to a study conducted at the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, iron supplementation which is recommended to pregnant women might not benefit noticeably, except in the case of anemic pregnant women. Iron is needed by the body for the production of hemoglobin which is responsible for transporting oxygen through the body. People in the West rarely suffer from anemia which is the lack of oxygen transporters. However, in Africa about half of the women are anemic.

The researchers studied about 1268 pregnant women. 43% of these participants were anemic. Half of the participants got 60 mg iron daily along with folic acid and the rest got 30 mg iron with folic acid. At the end of the research all the women had same iron levels in the blood, that is about 11 mg.Women do need more iron towards the end of the pregnancy. But the iron supplementation to the normal healthy women cannot stop the hemoglobin level to drop slightly.

The iron supplementation benefits for healthy women are still unclear. However, for anemic women the supplements might help to take the level up to a healthy level. The study is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.